News

(continuation)
... Now, near the end of my career, miraculously András Keller appeared. He is not only world-famous as a violinist and primarius of the Keller quartet, but an unique exception as conductor as well. We met in a Café near Munich main station in late 2016. He knowed and loved my label. He listened to my suggestion of recording some big works with “his” Concerto Budapest. But not 2 concerts plus minor corrections as usual, but recordings with a lot of time and hunger for something exceptional.

Well, he said, what about a series with ninth symphonies of Bruckner, Schubert, Dvorak, Schostakowitsch, Mahler? - Thus it happened. The recordings take place in the greatest calm and intensity, in the excellent acoustics of the Budapest Italian Institue, with the charme of TACET’s tube microphones and with an orchestra with a real artist on each chair, not only in the wood winds or brass, but also in the strings, up to the last desk! And with András Keller. All and everything work together. Every tiny little details is as important as the great arch. It makes me happy how all work together, how many individual suggestions enrich the whole. This comes from the common back ground: András Keller is a chamber music junky just like me.

There are enough ninth symphonies by Bruckner, Dvorák or Schubert on the market. But I dare to say: not like this. For me this is the crowning end, another icing on the cake on the TACET program. Look forward with me to the first release in october: Bruckner 9th. In outstanding stereo and in unique TACET Real Surround Sound.

2018-07-22

TACET productions live on the love of detail.

For many years I almost exclusively focused on chamber music. It was such a great pleasure to record chamber music as tonmeister and producer of TACET and thus shape the profile of an unusual label. To follow each voice, each little figure in the score, to be taken by the musicians to always new things and to dive together into the beauty soul of a composition. And to be aware of the great arch in the music.

I would have loved to record larger orchestras much earlier. For this however the right partners were missing. Many big and famous orchestras would like to release recordings on our label. But this normally only works by recording 2 or 3 concerts, combine them and at best insert some bars from a short correction session. I never liked that. Working that way there is no time for immersing, exchange of opinions or requests. That does not lead to more than in the end always secondary concert substitutes. Instead a TACET production is a staging for a special medium such as LP or SACD.

Some day I met the excellent conductor Wojciech Rajski and his Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and a friendship developed. We recorded Haydn, Mozart and the Beethoven symphonies. Furthermore there was an excursion to the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with Carlo Rizzi. Long since our Bolero and La Valse are famous among audiophile connoisseurs. All that increased the appetite for more...(to be continued)

2018-07-21

New Vinyl Release

The Best of TACET 2012

Greatest Classical Composers
in Exciting Sound Qualityplayed by the Best Artists

Important for vinyl collectors of exiting recordings: The 1000 copies of limited LP editions "The Best of TACET 2008", "The Best of TACET 2009", "...2010", "...2011" were sold like hot cakes. These releases are compilations of the best TACET recordings, in precious presentation and with an interesting text. Again the new "The Best of TACET 2012", "...2013" and "...2016" are limited to 1000 copies. Phenomenal sound quality. Even before the publication two thirds of the production quantity have been sold. Make sure and grab your copy now!

The Best of TACET 2013

Greatest Classical Composers
in Exciting Sound Qualityplayed by the Best Artists

New SACD release

After strong recommendations for the previous Auryn/Imai Mozart string quintets recording (Audiophile Highlight in Stereo, klassik-heute recommendation, nomination for ICMA) and lots of praise for the CD version of this recording there is not a lot to say. Except maybe that once again TACET Real Surround Sound musically reaches far beyond normal stereo. Every magical detail of the interaction between Matthias Lingenfelder, Jens Oppermann, Stewart Eaton und Andreas Arndt becomes clear. An ambitious multichannel recording is no high tech version of stereo, for many listeners it is equal to a live concert.

Early music and contemporary music
This new release is a good example of the way how centuries-old music inspires people of today to make something new. J. S. Bach took the theme he was given by the Prussian king Frederick the Great as an opportunity for a compositional logical game. One line of notes is enough to build - together with the king theme - a whole piece of 2, 3 or 4 voices. The mathematical strength of this task and the timeless beautiful solution by J. S. Bach fascinates until today. The German composer Sebastian Gottschick arranged the pieces, added pizzicati to the slow movement of the trio sonata, he created two new pieces with the material of Bach and combined the pieces to a contemporary concert. - Ariadne Daskalakis and her Ensemble Vintage Cologne present the modern concert version by Sebastian Gottschick as well as the missing original versions by Bach. The musicians adapt perfectly to the particular stylistic context, they play originally and emotionally.

2018-05-14

New CD release

The Welte Mignon Mystery

Alfred Reisenauer

today playing his 1905 interpretations
Works by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann

The "Welte Mignon Mystery" series, now comprising 28 CDs on 24 separate releases, continues to grow! For some time, this series has stood out from the numerous attempts at transferring the Welte rolls, especially for the quality of calibration of the Welte equipment, but also for the integrity of the rolls and the sound of the recordings. More information on the topic of Welte and this mysterious pneumatic technology, to which many of the most famous pianists and composers at the beginning of the 20th century entrusted their performances, can be found here:"What is Welte Mignon?"
All releases in the TACET series:
Welte Mignon Catalogue at TACET

And now to Alfred Reisenauer. Franz Liszt is supposed to have said of his pupil that his style was very similar to his own, "but without imitating him" (from the CD booklet). Reisenauer was born in 1863 in Königsberg and died in 1907 in a hotel in Latvia. In keeping with historical performance practice, which has long since been overtaken by Romanticism, this series also offers many original impressions of how people really played at that time in the 19th century: with recordings made long before recording technology had found its feet!

2018-04-15

Without our input, a customer bought the vinyl record “oréloB” and created a short video. Less then 24h later more than 100000 views:

Note: This LP does work with tangential turntables, as long as the movement of the system is not controlled by a feed motor. Recently I made myself an A/D-transfer of a TACET backwards vinyl record on the high end turntable “The Statement” together with the tangential tonearm “TT1” (both of Clear Audio). The story appeared in the latest Stereoplay edition (4/2018, German language) together with a demonstrating CD.

New CD release

The 3 CD box of W. A. Mozart's 6 string quintets (TACET 217) has gained a companion set: a similar box set of the same great master's 6 "Haydn-Quartets".

String quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart without historical performance practice - is that even possible nowadays? -Of course it is! At the same time, there is probably no serious classical musician who has entirely escaped its influence in some shape or form. We are not just talking about diligence in choosing "urtext editions" or in the choice of instrument. The changes creep into the smallest details of phrasing which people simply can't do as they used to, even subconsciously. This is borne out by listening to many performances.

Of course the Auryn Quartet is also subject to these influences. If, despite this, their performances seem conventional, then it's deceptive as their playing style is no longer conventional when seen in the light of modern performance practice. They refer back to a playing style that could be termed "historical" in a wholly different way, namely that of a musical generation that has now died out. Their role models and teachers were the Amadeus Quartet and the Guarnieri Quartet. The members of the Auryn Quartet were musically "socialised" in a different era to younger musicians and they choose not to discard the aesthetic sensibilities acquired in their youth as though they were just old-fashioned garments. They love the beautiful "old" string sound and keep this tradition alive, but with the diligence expected of today's musicians. The result is timelessly beautiful music. The new recording of the 6 "Haydn Quartets" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart provides an impressive example of this.

It's been quite a while since Markus Schirmer visited Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Despite the considerable competition, the recording has received excellent reviews. Schirmer impresses with well-thought-out, succinct and precisely-measured effects, which are shown off to their best advantage on the Fazioli piano in the List Halle in Graz, Austria. In the process, he never lapses into cheap showmanship: he simply conveys the impressions triggered by the pictures themselves.

Actually, the recording should have appeared a while ago on LP. However, the delay has also had its advantages: we can now offer it in TACET's famous reverse playback, which, with suitable music, offers a greater listening experience than was hitherto possible on vinyl.

The project Mare Balticum aims to present the medieval musical heritage of the Baltic Sea region in the 12th-15th centuries. It consists of four musical programmes, prepared in great detail, and employing the newest musicological, philological, historical and organological research. Each of these programmes presents the local character of a different coastal region of Balticum, ist specific historical and cultural situation, ist most important saints and rulers, and the Christian roots of the relevant country.

They provide an insight into the local literature and musical repertories of medieval Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Poland; both Latin and the vernacular are represented, as well as the diversity of historical musical instruments used in those regions at the time.

The project as a whole, however, aims to show something of the strong political and cultural connections between those medieval countries, their development over time, and the similarities between them, all of which are essential to our understanding of the common identity and history of Balticum, as is reflected to us through ist centuries of music.

Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett

As special guest we welcome Benjamin Bagby.

2017-11-22

New CD release

Although Beethoven's opus numbers extend to op. 135, there were no more piano sonatas after op. 111. There is, though, a variation cycle lasting almost an hour on a simple theme by Anton Diabelli. This astonishing cycle takes the listener into such distant moods, that even after the first variation it doesn't matter what the theme is, it is all so unmistakably Beethoven. Also on this disc, two cycles of "simple" piano pieces entitled "Bagatelles". Small, unimportant things, trivialities, which make you think involuntarily of much later romantic composers. And finally, the usually so self-critical Beethoven allocated his penultimate opus number (op. 134) to a "simple" piano score of the "Große Fuge" op. 133! So how does all this fit together?
Obviously, the scope of classical forms was too narrow for Beethoven. Did this apparent simplicity serve a wider purpose? The very last movement of the very last opus, the string quartet op. 135, is based on the text "Must it be? - It must be! " Was Beethoven in his last works pursuing an overall objective? Or did it all just happen like that? Find out now! You can find these last works for piano alongside each other on a double CD.

Just listen to the first few seconds of the "Große Fuge" with Ljupka Hadzigeorgiewa and Evgeni Koroliov. Succumb to the charm and allure of these two musicians, who lead us selflessly and confidently through this perplexing hiatus in musical history.

2017-09-15

New CD release

Evgeni Koroliov isn't the kind of musician who prefers to concentrate on previously unrecorded music. His specialty lies in discovering something new in well-known works. This is particularly true in this collection of pieces by Maurice Ravel. He immerses himself in the music without any extravagance, adding nothing to the score. Nevertheless, Koroliov always manages to make the music sound fresh to our ears. In Ma Mère l'Oye, Ljupka Hadžigeorgieva harmoniously completes this process of re-creation.

Over several years and several decades, Domenico Scarlatti composed a new sonata for his royal piano pupil practically each week. And so something gradually evolved that can justifiably be described as his life's work. But what does a life's work mean for us today? An immense number of sonatas, 555 in total. Their grandiose diversity and originality are only actually unlocked when, instead of consuming them en masse, you listen to just one a week. However you should then listen to this one sonata every day, just as Scarlatti originally intended. And in one fell swoop, your life is over! Can we really do them justice today? In view of this, mine and Christoph Ullrich's undertaking to stretch the production over 17 years seems appropriate. Besides this, at the same time, Christoph Ullrich is still working on other lifelong projects, such as his large-scale children's project “laterna musica” (formerly Earworm-Project). And so with our altered perception of time, we're battling to revive the past whilst remaining modern and curious in order to meet today's demands.

But the battle is worth it! What an adventure! Because who knows what'll come out of it after 17 years? What will the fingers and ears end up doing? Will there still be music at the end of it all? In all of his playfulness, craziness and childishness, in his cacophony of hand-crossing and sensuality, this cycle can also offer something very special compared to so many others: the realisation that doing more and more and doing it faster doesn't actually help. Composure in the face of the fact that our existence is finite.

So here are another two years of Christoph Ullrich's rigorous, beautiful and exhilarating work on Domenico Scarlatti. In some of the sonatas he is joined by guitarist Stefan Hladek. Volume 2 of 17, the longest of all: this time on 3 CDs instead of 2, but still for the price of one.

2017-05-22

All 9 Beethoven Symphonies on Vinyl - finally complete!

Since TACET re-entered the vinyl business back in 1999, barely 10 years after the supposed demise of the LP, they have ranked among the leading classical labels who continually delight their audiences with sparkling new recordings in this medium, claimed by many to be unsuitable for classical music.
And now this! All 9 symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by Wojciech Rajski and the Polish Chamber Orchestra in the flawless complete recordings on LP. Rhythmically crisp, secure in intonation, snappy, elegant, sensual, exciting, always transparent - all the advantages of a modern interpretation of Beethoven on modern instruments are united here. The CD versions were miles ahead of the competition. The multi-channel versions on SACD and BluRay enjoy cult status.

Some of the symphonies already existed as "Tube Only" versions on LP. They are replaced here with new mixes that no longer originate from tube microphone, analogue tape recordings. Instead they offer other important merits, such as clearer details as a result of using more microphones. Further added benefits in production include half-speed - and/or backwards mastering, which TACET have been famous for since their Boléro recording. There are 40 years of vinyl know-how behind this release. More information can be found on the LP sleeves.

2017-04-14

New CD Release

Edition EigenArt

Ferdinand
Works for violin solo
by Alan Ridout, Carl Nielsen and J. S. Bach
Adrian Adlam, violinSpoken text in English

Ferdinand? Is that the man with the violin? No, that is Adrian Adlam. He is peace-loving, just like the protagonist of the eponymous piece - a bull, who doesn't want to enter the bullring. The children's book behind it was written during the Spanish Civil War and was banned by Mussolini and Hitler because of ist cleverly packaged criticism. To stand on stage alone with the violin, is reminiscent of the ancient tradition of storytelling: the narrator, too, had only his own voice which he used to captivate people. Adrian Adlam possesses the exceptional gift of conveying a story on several different levels at once. He speaks and plays at the same time, thus bringing both adults and children under his spell. And so the artistic director of the International Freden Music Festival once again displays his versatile virtuosity, as he does throughout the whole CD: Ridout stands alongside Nielsen, who stands alongside Bach. All lone heroes!

Compared with other formats, CDs are by far the bestsellers at TACET. Even the LP boom years of 2012-2014 didn't alter that. Currently, our high-quality multichannel recordings in TACET Real Surround Sound are gaining in popularity. Sales in this format had already exceeded those of LPs by 2015, and by 2016 they had surpassed them.
With TACET's multichannel sound, TRSS, it's not about image: it's entirely about sound. Every day, more and more people experience how, in a multi-channel recording from TACET, they needn't be positioned in one place as though they are nailed to their seat. It's comparable to the difference between stereo and mono: from any point in the room, not just from the optimum listening position, a good stereo recording will sound better than the same recording in mono. This is even more true of TACET Real Surround Sound. Even from the room next door it probably sounds better than the stereo version!

No wonder the number of curious and open-minded listeners is steadily increasing. Unfortunately, too many listeners still shy away from multichannel systems, whether due to lack of space, for financial reasons, the worry of buying the wrong components or of not being able to manage them.
We can help on the last point: we have provided a free guide at TACET's download page.

Here newcomers to Surround Sound can find hints to help them through the maze of possibilities. Proud owners of multichannel systems will enjoy sound improvements that are freely achievable with their system. No measuring devices needed, just your ears! With the freely downloadable files, you can determine whether the right signal is coming from each of the speakers. You can minimize differences in volume between the individual speakers in a 5.1 system or compensate for the different distances between each speaker and the listener. Or maybe we'll shed light on bass management. Best of luck!

The string quartet offers countless possibilities of interplay between the different instruments. If you add a fifth person to the mix, in this case the viola player, Nobuko Imai, with the Auryn Quartet, then it not only gives the whole sound a comparatively orchestral quality but also considerably increases the methods at the composer's disposal. These are just two reasons why Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's combination of 2 violins, 2 violas and a cello have become so well-loved. In TACET Real Surround Sound the many ingenious, refined and playful themes, the whole inexhaustible richness of Mozart's ideas are realised even more clearly.

The opulent and tragic KV 406 in C minor together with the pure, idealistic KV 515 in C major forms the first standalone SACD, the famous, sorrowful KV 516 in G minor with the early, exuberant and dramatic KV 174 the second disc, and the chirruping, mischievous KV 614 in E flat major with the mature and worldly-wise KV 593 in D major the third.In as far as these characterisations say anything at all about the music, it is only about the opening of each piece. Each movement is distinct and different. Every quintet tells ist own great story.

Out now is the first SACD of a set of three in TACET's complete edition.

This recording first appeared in 2006 in stereo on CD. It was highly praised everywhere, including in SPIEGEL magazine's cultural section, and was CD of the month in Stereoplay. German weekly newspaper "junge Freiheit" wrote, "An exceptional work like this should only be recorded when the performers identify with it completely and utterly, or possibly even over-identify with it. If you want to have everything, you have to give everything." So why is this recording being released again now? Because of the sound.

TACET Real Surround Sound means that the listener is placed in the middle of the music. Stereo or normal Surround Sound, on the other hand, leaves him on the outside. Moving Real Surround Sound goes one step further still: the music is directed for the listener, a bit like in a theatrical production. Find out more at www.tacet.de. All the effects originate from the music: there are no external additions such as noises or sound effects etc. Almost all the interventions from the producer can be justified in the score. Amongst many other things, Moving Surround Sound offers a kind of magnifying effect. Details and contours appear to be greater and clearer.

Many thanks to the musicians of the Clarens Quintet: Gernot Süßmuth, Eva Schönweiß, Felix Schwartz, Andreas Greger and Sebastian Krahnert. Their decisive contribution to this production is in no way diminished by the fact that a third party collaborated with them on it, who was himself inspired both by Wilhelm Furtwängler and also by them.

2017-02-22

Christoph Ullrich has published two Scarlatti-Videos on Youtube. Watch here:

The CD cover probably doesn't convey the impression of a long-persecuted and even longer forgotten 20th century composer. Yet ist intention is not to be provocative; it merely represents reality. Riding is just as much part of Antonina Styczen's life as playing the flute. She is outstanding in both disciplines.

The associated recording likewise confounds our expectations. Most people know Mieczyslaw Wajnberg by the name of Weinberg, which was assigned to him (so I've heard) by Soviet customs officials when he entered Russia. Many of his works are only gradually becoming known, like the Flute Concerto No.2 or the Trio for Flute, Viola and Harp on this disc. Wajnberg can't easily be pigeonholed. He assimilates numerous influences freely and virtuosically and yet isn't bound to any of the well-known artistic movements of his time. Whether from 1945 or 1987, the mark of a distinctive musical personality is there for all to hear from the very first bars of each piece.

Confident and lithesome: Wojciech Rajski and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic.

Many thanks to these institutions for their kind support:

2016-11-25

We are happy to announce that two of our 2016 releases have been nominated for the "International Classical Music Awards" (ICMA)!

Congratulations to the artists. We look forward to the final result, which will be published on 20 January 2017.

2016-11-24

On the occasion of Scarlatti's 331st birthday

Somewhat belatedly, we received this video message from Christoph Ullrich on the occasion of Scarlatti's 331st birthday on 26th October. It's a small, scientifically significant comment on Scarlatti that we just couldn't deny you!

"...Ice-cold princes and ladies of the court were seen to cry when he played an adagio. Tears often fell from his own eyes onto his violin as he played... His bow-stroke was slow and stately; but unlike Tartini, he did not tear out the notes by the roots, but kissed only their tips. He played staccato very slowly and every note seemed to be a drop of blood, which flowed from the most feeling of souls."

Just one example of the quotes that Wolfgang Wedel has dug out for the CD insert of this recording. This one refers to Pietro Nardini but it could just as well apply to Daniel Gaede, sympathetically accompanied by Wolfgang Kühnl. OK, so maybe not the bit about tears! But the sensitivity of Gaede's violin playing is difficult to describe adequately. Over and above this, there are a few unusual encores by the likes of Shostakovich, Korngold or Suk to be discovered. A disc for music lovers and connoisseurs to savour, not to mention lovers of the warm, nostalgic Tube Sound.

2016-10-21

New CD release

The Welte Mignon Mystery Vol. XXI

Alfred Grünfeld

today playing his 1905 interpretations.
Works by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, Schumann, Strauß, Volkmann and Grünfeld.

The Welte Series continues! This time it's the turn of pianist Alfred Grünfeld, born in 1851, with Welte rolls recorded between 15th and 20th January 1905.
The unparalleled Welte Mystery Series by TACET has become a real treasure trove, not only for researchers but also for every music lover, as the example of "Träumerei" Op. 15 No. 7 by Robert Schumann shows: Not only does the music sound absolutely realistic and believable, and definitely not machine-like, but on top of everything else, you get a first-hand impression, so to speak, of how Robert Schumann was played after his death, yet still in the same century. It offers a comparison with a myriad of modern recordings.

New CD release

The latest CD from Evgeni Korioliov offers a new and, at the same time, old answer to the question of whether there is any point in bringing out discs today that have been recorded a hundred times before. Mozart KV 330 etc. - many people are rolling their eyes at it, but only until they hear the first few notes. This music has never been heard like this before. The mobile phone falls into their lap, the computer mouse is still. The ears really want to give it their full attention. Some of the nagging stress of everyday life evaporates. Time drifts by. It makes you happy to watch this. This is actually what music should always do.

In the midst of all this pleasure, it's easy to forget that the artful way in which this is achieved isn't thanks to any old pianist. Evgeni Koroliov doesn't go looking for recognition. He calmly takes us by the hand and shows us the beautiful, hidden corners in Mozart's music.

New EigenArt release

In 2001, four young musicians of mainly Taiwanese origin met in Germany and decided to make music together there. They called themselves the "Jade Quartet". Jade is a precious stone, "Ja" is the Chinese word for Asia and "De" stands for Germany (Deutschland).
On their "EigenArt-CD", Hanlin Liang und Hyun Ji You (Violins), Kai-Hsi Fan (Viola) und Shih-Yu Yu (Violoncello) bring the unfamiliar music of their homeland, infused with European influences, closer to us by infusing it with European influences. The composer Jin Peng, also from Taiwan, studied in Germany and writes music that tells of her homeland, including much about her childhood. A fascinating and enriching extension of the spectrum offered by the string quartet. This recording shows how this genre can take on other influences, give something back to them and how it can develop further.

The music is complex in places, very difficult to play, but at the same time sometimes really simple, almost like children's pieces. The Jade Quartet combines bravura virtuosity in the tricky passages with a performance of almost childlike naivety in the simple pieces.

Dirk Altmann plays the French clarinet equally as well as he plays the German instrument. By playing both instruments, this native Hannoverian seems to have fallen in love with the French capital. In a very personal, recital-like compilation of works, all with a connection to Paris, he describes in music what it is that connects him with this large, cosmopolitan city. In a natural, almost child-like manner, and yet at the same time very artistically, he expresses his declaration of love: he even arranges some works himself for his chosen combination of instruments. With such virtuosic yet subtle playing, alongside his colleagues Mako Okamoto (piano), Ryutaro Hei (double bass) and Anne-Maria Hölscher (accordion), time flies for the listener. And so a portrait of Dirk Altmann is unwhittingly gained from a portrait of Paris.

Hot on the heels of the CD, SACD and Blu-Ray recordings, the fourth and final edition of the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, with Wojciech Rajski and his Polish Chamber Philharmonic, has now been released in the LP version.
As with the other media, this double LP has it all: the same rousing interpretation by the Polish musicians and international soloists, the same rousing TACET sound. And the 4th movement goes one better: it was cut in reverse on the disc, using the same process that has already sent countless listeners of other TACET LPs into raptures.
And it works on any turntable!

In the light of recent queries:

We were asked if there is an audible difference between the sound of TACET's SACDs and Blu-ray Discs, for example in the Beethoven symphonies which have just been released. The answer is clear: no.
Both the stereo and multi-channel versions are identical. On the SACD the signal is always saved with the DSD method, on Blu-ray in PCM 2496. Theoretically there could be a discernible difference, however I can't hear any and I've never heard of any colleagues that can.
The reason for the duplicate publication is simply that we want to reach as many customers as possible.

The market for high-quality multi-channel recording is making great strides forward. A lot of good new recordings were presented recently at the High End Hi-Fi Show in Munich, and now we're offering one more: the first complete recording of all Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies in phenomenal TACET Real Surround Sound in a box of 3 Blu-ray Discs! Wojciech Rajski and his Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra unleash a five-and-a-half-hour firework display full of surprises. You can hardly believe your ears: was that really exactly how Beethoven wrote it? Yes, absolutely

"Where should I begin? With the music or the recording technology? Both are equally thrilling!..." (Pizzicato) "Now, without wishing to go OTT about it, this is one SACD which I think I can unreservedly recommend to EVERY reader of this website who likes classical music. I?d personally go so far as to rate it as probably the most important issue sound-wise I?ve come across in listening to multichannel CDs, indeed in my entire adult listening experience (stretching back thirty years now) " (SACD.net)
Read more here

"All men will be brothers" - wouldn't that be something? Did he (Friedrich
Schiller) actually mean us? There is a disconcertingly wide discrepancy between the hope expressed in the 9th Symphony and geopolitical reality.
"All men will be brothers". An illusion? A utopia? - For once we should just indulge this thought and be inspired by the way that Wojciech Rajski makes the idea a reality in such a carefree and contagious manner with his Polish Chamber Philharmonic, the Schola Cantorum Gedanensis choir, soloists Bomi Lee (Korea), Agnieszka Rehlis, Krystian Adam Krzeszowiak (both Poland) and Tareq Nazmi (Egypt) and indeed all of us here in Germany. This is due in no small measure to the fact that Wojciech Rajski follows the instructions in the score precisely. Of course, the Götterfunke (spark of divinity) ignites particularly well in TACET Real Surround Sound! Rémy Franck wrote of the stereo version in Pizzicato (www.pizzicato.lu): " there is no false solemnity here, just happy, untroubled upbeat joy "

This is definitely a reference hi-res disc both because of the orchestral performance and the sound. If anybody still out there dares to say that regular CDs are just as good as a hi-res surround sound SACD all they have to do is listen to this disc with the appropriate equipment. Specifically they should go to the Finale of the 5th (T-4) and T-8, the Storm movement of the 6th - there are no words to accurately describe the feeling of being in the midst of orchestra as it were. A highly recommended disc, both for the sublime orchestral performance and more so for the glorious sound - a must have! Audiophile Audition

2016-05-12

New CD release

Sergei Prokofiev

Overture on Hebrew Themes,
Quintet, Visions fugitives
and other chamber music

The clarinetist Dirk Altmann came to me and asked if I would like to record Sergei Prokofiev's Quintet. Yes I would, because I know the Ludwig Chamber Players from other recordings, and know how good they are. But what to record with it? The Quintet only lasts a quarter of an hour. What other chamber music is there by Prokofiev? So we went on the search.

What came out of it is this kaleidoscope of Prokofiev's chamber music output, together with a beautiful new instrumentation of the "Visions Fugitives" for 10 instruments under the pseudonym of M. Ucki. Few composers have been so capricious, stylistically as well as compositionally. Uninhibited boldness, such as the same melody line played simultaneously on different instruments, only with different phrasing, alternating with apparently conventional elements. Places of breathtaking virtuosity and boldness on the one side contrasting with enraptured, tender and melancholic moods on the other from a man who was probably always caught between two stools and wasn't entirely at home anywhere. A cosmopolitan ahead of his time. And always these new, strange harmonies and this typically sarcastic?, resigned?, relentless? Rhythm that fits so well with 20th century Russian history. An adventure.

A small boat rocks helplessly on the waves, delivered up by the ocean; the listener holds tight onto the edge so they don't fall out. Unhatched chicks dancing in their shells; the listener experiences their confinement. It's an almost perfect illusion, whether it's the bells down below in the valley or the catacombs where the dead lie sleeping. And the "Dance of the Hut on Fowl's Legs" gives free rein to fantasy, even in the title! Anything is possible - inside your head! This is by no means just because of TACET Real Surround Sound. It comes from the 3 Ms, Modest Mussorgsky, Maurice Ravel, and Markus Schirmer. Old works in a new guise. The recording has already been released on DVD-Audio. As it is out of stock, it will now be reissued on Blu-ray disc.

2016-04-25

New CD release

Mozart's string quintets are every bit the equal of his string quartets and are among the finest ever written for this genre. None of the six masterpieces is weaker than the others. Matthias Lingenfelder, Jens Oppermann, Stewart Eaton and Andreas Arndt have long harboured the desire to record this summit of the chamber music repertoire. With Nobuko Imai as second viola, they have now found a sympathetic partner who has integrated into the ensemble so well that it seems as if she has been playing with them for the entire 35 years that the 4 of them have been together.

A benchmark-setting new complete recording on 3 CDs with the Auryn Quartet and Nobuko Imai.

A Beethoven cycle that's fun from the first note to the last! Wojciech Rajski guides us through the utterly inexhaustible wealth of ideas, energetic and sensitive, humorous and dancelike, with dazzling elegance. And he brings out details that have not been heard before. Indulgence without pathos.

The series developed over a period of 10 years. It began in 2005 in Sopot (Poland) and ended with the 9th Symphony in summer 2015 in St. John's Church, Gdansk. The original impetus for the whole project lay in the desire for the first recording of the Beethoven symphonies in Real Surround Sound. As a result, until now there has been no CD version: instead there has been only SACD or DVD-Audio. But Rajski's Beethoven features musical qualities which can't be denied to "normal" CD and stereo listeners. So here is a box set with new stereo mixes of all the recordings on 5 CDs. To crown it all, in early 2016 there will be the long-awaited finale with the 9th Symphony on SACD and LP, as well as the entire cycle on Blu-ray in TACET Real Surround Sound.

"Scarlatti's Birthday Party" - this was the title of a performance by the English comedy troupe Natural Theatre Company, which I went to see in 1985. Very virtuoso and very funny. The fundamental idea was that in 1985 the whole world was celebrating the 300th birthday of J.S. Bach, and also a few were celebrating that of G. F. Handel. Scarlatti's 300th birthday was celebrated by no-one at the time! In "Scarlatti's Birthday Party", there was some particularly absurd recorder playing, which actually suited his music pretty well, even though he wrote nothing for this instrument.

For part 5 of his recordings of the complete 555 keyboard sonatas presented here, Christoph Ullrich doesn't need a recorder anyhow! His reverence towards this father of virtuoso keyboard music is always enthralling and rich in variety and has us on the edge of our seats. But then, for two fascinating bonus tracks, Ullrich brings the well-known percussionist Eric Schaefer into the recording studio. There they improvise together on two of the previously recorded sonatas. The result rounds off part 5. We can also reckon on more such surprises in the future!

Oh yes, and incidentally: on 26th October 2015 we will be celebrating Scarlatti's 330th birthday! Happy birthday, Scarlatti!

Managing to convey the Adagio and Allegro op. 70 by Robert Schumann clearly on the double bass with piano makes huge demands on the interpreter. Capturing the wit and rhythmic charm, but also the plaintiveness without lamentation in the Double Bass Sonata by Karel Reiner is a challenge on this weighty instrument, which even for the smallest sound requires the greatest physical effort.
The same applies to the solo piece "Reincarnation" by Yumiko Nishida. After all, this premiere recording of a rebirth shouldn't be a tough or cumbersome event! The Brahms sonata on the other hand, which everyone has in their head in the original version for cello, mustn't create the impression that something is lost in the transfer from the cello to the double bass. Instead, it needs to add something new to the appeal of an old friend.
And that scourge Giovanni Bottesini, who ultimately strikes fear and dread into the heart of every bass player: or almost every bass player. Ryutaro Hei masters every task with bravura, not least thanks to his congenial partner at the piano, Yu Kosuge. A very successful debut on the EigenArt label.